Triot Campaign (363.M41)
Page under construction The Triot Campaign of 363.M41 was the Imperial military reconquest of Triot - which had been lost to orks in 152.M41. It was waged by the Imperial Guard and Ghosts of Retribution and resulted in the Imperium decisively reclaiming most of Triot's landmass and eradicating an enormous proportion of the Greenskin threat. Background Triot - an Imperial Industrial world - fell to greenskins in 152.M41 when a large Waaagh swept into the system from the Sector's edge. While the Waaagh was stalled in orbit it was too powerful to eradicate on the ground without causing irreversible destruction to the world, and so for the next two centuries the ork menace festered while the nearby Fortress World of Gradburg held them at bay and weathered constant probes from ork roks and attack ships. Meanwhile the humans left on Triot fled to a large mountain range on the western continent of Surim, unifying as the Triot Continuation Council (TCC) and resisting any ork attempts to finish them off. This would change in 354.M41 when the Xerant Dynasty of Adamant Prime declared that they would pledge troops to reclaim Triot. Gradburg quickly pledged what they could as well, finally seeing their opportunity to end the ork menace that plagued them. Then the Ghosts of Retribution - an Astartes Chapter - also promised to contribute no less than three companies to the Campaign along with the Krieg 128th - a vassal unit. The nearby world of Doria IV also pledged a full Brigade and House Macrae of Fyphe - close allies of the Xerant Dynasty - promised four Squadrons of Knights. With around 20 million solders and hundreds of Astartes pledged to the reclamation, the year of 361.M41 was marked as the planned start to the operation. However after the chaos caused by the Coup against Larion Ursus in late 359.M41 this date was pushed back to 363.M41. Fortunately no further incidenrts delayed the invasion, and when 363.M41 arrived all Imperial forces were in place. The commander of the Imperial Guard forces was Lord General Militant Lucas Xerant, while Admiral Ona Pelial and the Chapter Master of the Ghosts of Retribution commanded their own forces in cooperation. Also playing a significant role was General Herman Dorialis, the leader of the TCCs military forces. While Lord General Militant Xerant was of much higher rank than the Imperial forces warranted, he decided to lead this operation personally in order to cement his position and reputation as the Sector's new Supreme Imperial Guard Commander. Description The Imperial invasion force was marshalled in orbit above Gradburg in a large fleet of mostly transport craft. The primary vessels were the Regent-class Orbital Assault Ship Tempest ''of the Imperial Navy, and the Astartes Battle Barge ''Aspera Dominus of the Ghosts of Retribution, accompanied by a large Naval transport fleet and several patrol groups. Heavy void combat was not expected so the Imperial warships were mostly escorts & light cruisers to escort the troop transports and chase down any would-be escapees. 'Operation Ghostblade' Launched six months prior to the planned invasion, this astartes operation was devoted to intelligence gathering and guerilla activities on Triot to sow discord amongst the orks. A force of Revenants and Astartes Scouts infiltrated to the surface of Triot, and their activiies were highly successful in locating the largest concentrations of orknoid anti-orbital defences and exposing the orks' power structure and level of unity. This information was invaluable for the Campaign and contributed greatly to its success. This was further corroborated by TCC intelligence provided by General Dorialis. Operation Ghostblade determined that the orks on Triot were highly fractured and had little widely-spanning infrastructure. However there were pockets of significant strength scattered across the planet. Over the course of the Operation they also marshalled a number of small, scattered groups of several thousand human survivors and banded them into a small resistance. These reinforcements greatly aided the astartes, and were used to enact small distraction offensives with the Astartes Scouts that allowed Geron and his Revenants to assassinate three major warbosses and set charges on a dozen major bridges near the planned Imperial landing zone of the northern reaches. This caused chaos amongst the orks in the northern half of the eastern continent of Surim in preparation for the invasion. They also learned - with the help of the TCC - that the largest and strongest of the many ork klans on Triot was the Skullroarz. Spanning both Kalem and Surim, this klan had two primary leaders. The true head Warboss was Brok Racksmasha, a typical orknoid warboss of tremendous size and ferocity, and he commanded the Skullroarz located on the eastern continent of Kalem. His underling - the powerful Weirdboy Tard Powa'ead - commanded the Skullroarz on the western continent of Surim, and Racksmasha ensured the Weirdboyz loyalty by holding his pet squiglet as a hostage. 'Transit, Planetfall, and Opening Engagements' The invasion fleet departed from Gradburg just one week after Emperor's Day of 363.M41. They warped into the nearby Triot System just three days later with minimal incidents, with only three Troop Transports experiencing media-level warp phenomena and 37 ships delayed. The Aspera Dominus led the fleet as it entered orbit around Triot, its bombardment cannons - along with the Tempest's - destroying many of the ork's most important anti-orbital positions and ensuring the void fleet was unmolested as it descended into low orbit. The Imperial Force made planetfall on the vast tundra of Triot's northern pole, where the sparce and disarrayed ork presence was swiftly eradicated by airstrikes and the Space Marines - who had landed first to secure the landing zones. Within just a few hours hundreds of thousands of Guardsmen were deployed from Citadel-class Landers and Devourer Dropships, quickly establishing a massive perimeter approximately a thousand miles wide along the northern edge of Surim. As the Imperial Guard assembled and and fortified their beachead, the Ghosts of Retribution kept ahead of the lines and assaulted any roving Ork bands in the area. This kept any potential counter-assault in disarray for several days allowing the Imperial Guard to properly assemble its forces in preparation for the main offensive. After 12 days approximately a million soldiers had landed, and completed construction of major landing pads and facilities that allowed the remaining troops to deploy much more quickly. This phase of the Campaign went well overall for the Imperium. Of the several thousand Imperial landing craft used in the operation a total of 23 were downed - mostly due to accidents. The most grievous was the loss of Devourer 808k, when she landed on thin ice and sank resulting in the loss of the entirety of 3rd Battalion, 291st Adamantian Armoured Regiment. Notable Battles: 'Imperial Offensive' Once the Imperial perimeter had been secured & bolstered, the time had come to launch an offensive into Surim along the entire front. However Imperial intelligence spotted large resource columns heading into a small group of mountains near the enormous Lake Ramara. Before the main advance began the Ghosts of Retribution assaulted the area from Thunderhawks, discovering an enormous orknoid airbase under construction. One Scout - Alorius - was killed during the Battle of Lake Ramara as he spotted targets for strafing thunderhawks, but the Chapter succeeded in destroying 120 ork aircraft and over 6000 orks with no other casualties. Armoured & Mechanised Regiments then led the enormous push South, closely followed by Infantry and Artillery, which saw over 500 Regiments engage Greenskins in direct battle and 1500 more closely following the front in support. Meanwhile the Ghosts of Retribution constantly deployed and redeployed to wherever the fighting was thickest, shattering greenskin strongpoints and keeping the pace of the advance. The first major Imperial Guard engagement was claimed by the 37th Adamantian Armoured Regiment, where - with the support of the 441st Adamantian Mechanised Regiment - they assaulted a large greenskin-held town and won a decisive victory. In the space of five weeks the Imperial frontline had moved almost 2000 miles south, with relatively light casualties as the orks struggled to marshal their strength that had already been put into disarray by the efforts of Operation Ghostblade. The opening offensive succeeded in extending Imperial territory into more temperate regions and claimed a large number of scattered Fortresses of Imperial origin that provided the Imperial lines with key strongpoints. One of the most important of these was Fort Hardyr, a large coastal fortress-port located on the southern tip of the Kaddilan Peninsula that serves as a key entry point to the Enruss Ocean. Notable Battles: 'Organised Ork Resistance' Unfortunately after these five weeks the orknoids gained enough traction to start mounting a serious, organised defence around the 15th Parallel North, slowing the Imperial advance as larger ork hordes were encountered along with more dangerous war machines such a Stompas and looted tanks. The main cause of this was a major concentration of Skullroarz orks that had gathered to the eest of the Ramara Mountain Range, and their superior numbers and technology stalled the Imperial advance. In the Battle of Gallagen Hills a massive band of Skullroarz including a large number of Meganobz and well-made ork tanks engaged the 642nd Adamantian Infantry Regiment of 20,000 men, catching the regiment off-guard. As the regiment attempts to retreat they find the hills behind them have been flanked by a large number of ork Kommandos. Trapped between two ork forces the 642nd ended up suffering 92% casualties (including 44% KIA) before the Ghosts of Retribution and Imperial Guard reinforments arrived and eradicated the ork force. The remnants of the 642nd were stationed in recovery until the end of the Campaign. Another setback on the western front struck when a large unit of 50,000 elite Skullroarz orks led by a mid-level warboss conducted a surprise amphibious assault on Fort Hardyr, forcing the small garrison of the 1766th Gradburgan Infantry Regiment to retreat in the face of the well-equipped Nobs and Kommandos. This gave the orks a stronghold behind the Imperial front lines that could not be allowed to endure and expand. The last event that put a halt to the Imperial advance was the unexpected strength of the Straitshootaz clan to the west of the Ramara Mountain Range. Thought to be a minor klan, the Straightshootaz had unfortunately consolidated control over a large number of disparate orks in the first weeks of the invasion thanks to an unusually capable Warboss. The Straitshootaz managed to break through the Imperial lines with a phalanx of Stompas and soon threatened to encircle eleven entire Imperial Guard regiments as they headed towards the northwestern coastline. Fortunately the Straitshootaz' breakthrough northward was stopped by the 9th Dorian Heavy Infantry Regiment, who successfully defended a large forward operating base near the city of Mardin and effectively saved over a dozen support regiments from destruction. Notable Battles: 'Ghosts of Retribution Triot Campaign Losses' 1 Scout - Alorius 3 Sternguard Veterans - Altir - Memerius - Hamagon - Operation Earthshatter 6th Company -''' 11 Marines '''1st Company - '''19 Veterans '''8th Company - 4 Marines 'Krieg 128th '- KIA: 11,236 Guardsmen; 116 Officers; Colonel Von Strahl Clean-up Operations 8th Company - 4 marines (Remus, Arortion, Remercius, Larkon) 6 Scouts (Hidar, Belkon, Milikar, Azerius, Velmacht, Miriamon)